UPDATE: Baby Jesus is back in his manger in Luzerne County.
The owner, Lisa Marso, says she came outside Wednesday morning and he was back on the lawn about 10 feet from the nativity scene.
Someone swiped the figurine from a nativity on Upper Demunds Road near Dallas over the weekend.
The owner told Newswatch 16 Tuesday she doesn't plan to press charges.
DALLAS TOWNSHIP -- Somebody has stolen a baby Jesus from a manger scene in Luzerne County’s Back Mountain, and according to family members, the theft is more than just a stupid prank. This particular one is a family heirloom that can't be replaced.
The nativity set is from the 1970s and had belonged to Lisa Marso's late Uncle Ralph. Marso admired him and displayed the set about two weeks ago for the first time since her uncle's passing.
”It's something that is nothing more than a symbol of my family and the love that we have,” Marso said.
But over the weekend, a thief came onto their property in Dallas Township, yanked baby Jesus off their lawn, and with it, also stole a piece of the family's Christmas past.
“It actually is very disturbingly symbolic of the void that we feel in our family with the loss of him,” Marso said.
Police are trying to track down the Grinch but don't yet have any leads.
Now, Lisa Marso is now hoping for a Christmas miracle: to have baby Jesus returned.
“I don't care who it is,” she said. “I hold no judgement, just please put him back.”
